22 B Original: English No.: ICC-01/18 Date: 13 February 2020 PRE-TRIAL CHAMBER I Before
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ICC-01/18-26 14-02-2020 1/10 EK PT 22 b Original: English No.: ICC-01/18 Date: 13 February 2020 PRE-TRIAL CHAMBER I Before: Judge Péter Kovács, Presiding Judge Judge Marc Perrin de Brichambaut Judge Reine Adélaïde Sophie Alapini-Gansou SITUATION IN THE STATE OF PALESTINE PUBLIC Application for Leave to Submit Observations on the Prosecutor’s Request in accordance with the Chamber’s Order of 28 January 2020 on behalf of the Non-Governmental Organisations: The Lawfare Project, the Institute for NGO Research, Palestinian Media Watch, and the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs Source: The Lawfare Project The Institute for NGO Research Palestinian Media Watch The Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs No. ICC-01/18 1/10 February 2020 ICC-01/18-26 14-02-2020 2/10 EK PT Document to be notified in accordance with regulation 31 of the Regulations of the Court to: The Office of the Prosecutor Counsel for the Defence Fatou Bensouda James Stewart Legal Representatives of the Victims Legal Representatives of the Applicants Unrepresented Victims Unrepresented Applicants The Office of Public Counsel for Victims The Office of Public Counsel for the Paolina Massidda Defence States’ Representatives Applicants to participate as Amicus Curiae REGISTRY Registrar Counsel Support Section Peter Lewis Victims and Witnesses Unit Detention Section Nigel Verrill Victims Participation and Reparations Other Section Philipp Ambach No. ICC-01/18 2/10 February 2020 ICC-01/18-26 14-02-2020 3/10 EK PT 1. In accordance with paragraph 17 of the Chamber’s Order of 28 January 2020 setting the procedure and the schedule for the submission of observations (the “Order”), and pursuant to rule 103 of the Rules and paragraph e) of the Order, the undersigned Organisations associated with this request seek leave to submit written observations on the question of jurisdiction set forth in Paragraph 220 of the Prosecutor’s Request with respect to the so- called “Situation in Palestine.” I. Details of Affiliation and Expertise A. The Lawfare Project 2. The Lawfare Project (“LP”) was founded in 2010 as a non-profit think tank and litigation fund whose mission is to enforce and protect the human and civil rights of Jewish communities worldwide. Since its inception, LP, headquartered in New York City, has pursued over 80 different legal actions and initiatives to advance justice and combat anti- Semitism in over 17 jurisdictions worldwide, including the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Poland, Germany, Switzerland and the European Union. LP has recruited more than 400 attorneys from across the United States and abroad who have devoted thousands of hours of pro bono legal services protecting the rights of the Jewish community and fighting anti-Semitism. 3. LP has previously been granted leave to make submissions to the Court, most recently in July 2019 in the form of an Article 15 Communication regarding the precondition of jurisdiction under Article 12 of the Rome Statute. LP’s submission was part of a series drawing the Office of the Prosecutor’s attention to matters of fact and law relevant to its preliminary examination of the so-called “Situation in Palestine”. 4. The following experts would contribute to LP’s filing with the Pre-Trial Chamber: a. Brooke Goldstein is an attorney and the Executive Director of LP, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about and facilitating a response to the abuse of Western legal systems and human rights law. She has lectured and taught seminars at numerous schools, including the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, New York University, Berkeley University, Stanford University, and others. She has also been invited to brief government officials at the U.S. State Department, the White House, the Pentagon, the U.K. Parliament, and U.S. Central Command on issues of asymmetric warfare and human rights. No. ICC-01/18 3/10 February 2020 ICC-01/18-26 14-02-2020 4/10 EK PT b. Gerard Filitti is an attorney and Senior Counsel at LP. He has been a practicing litigator for over 15 years, with broad experience across diverse practice areas. Most recently, he pursued civil counter-terrorism litigation with an emphasis on money laundering investigations, and represented victims of international acts of terrorism in litigation brought under the Anti-Terrorism Act, the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, and the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. Prior to his law career, Filitti was a historian with a specialization in the Middle East and Central Asia. He received his postgraduate degree from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, and was elected a Fellow of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland. He lectured extensively on diverse topics regarding the Middle East and Central Asia. B. The Institute for NGO Research 5. The Institute for NGO Research (the “Institute”), an NGO in special consultative status with UN ECOSOC since 2013, is a research and policy organization located in Jerusalem, Israel. Founded in 2001, the Institute provides research and policy recommendations relating to the legal, political, and historical issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict.1 6. The Institute works with legal and academic experts to carry out its work and is active in UN frameworks, the European Parliament and Commission, international organizations, and with domestic governments around the world. Members of the Institute have written extensively on the issues of international criminal justice, universal jurisdiction, best practices for fact finding investigations and UN reporting mechanisms, good governance, transparency, and accountability.2 1 Members of the Institute’s Advisory Board include Harvard Professor Alan Dershowitz; Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Iraq and Afghanistan; Amb. Vivian Berkovici, former Canadian Ambassador to Israel; Sen. Linda Frum, member of the Senate of the Province of Ontario; Hon. Michael Danby MP, senior member of the Australian Labor Party; R. James Woolsey, former US Director of Central Intelligence; former Member of Italian Parliament, Fiamma Nirenstein; US Jurist and former Legal Advisor to the State Department, Abraham Sofaer; UCLA Professor and President of the Daniel Pearl Foundation, Judea Pearl; Harvard Professor Ruth Wisse; former US government official, Elliot Abrams; Dr. Einat Wilf, former member of Knesset with the Israel Labor Party and advisor to Shimon Peres; Douglas Murray, Director of the Centre for Social Cohesion, best-selling author and commentator; and British journalist and international affairs commentator, Tom Gross. 2 Our work has been published in several books and many academic journals including: Best Practices for Human Rights and Humanitarian NGO Fact-finding (Brill 2012); the Israel Law Review, International Journal of Human Rights, Global Governance, Israel Yearbook on Human Rights, Israel Journal of Foreign Affairs, Georgetown Journal of Human Rights, and Middle East Quarterly. No. ICC-01/18 4/10 February 2020 ICC-01/18-26 14-02-2020 5/10 EK PT 7. The Institute participated during the deliberation process conducted by the Office of the Prosecutor in light of the 2009 attempt by the Palestinian Authority to join the Court as a State party. 3 The Institute has also corresponded with the OTP regarding its use of social media to aid its investigations. This correspondence was incorporated into an academic study published in 2012 in the Israel Law Review.4 8. The following experts would contribute to the Institute’s filing with the Pre-Trial Chamber: a. Professor Gerald Steinberg is founder and president of the Institute for NGO Research and professor of Political Studies at Bar Ilan University. He is the founder of the Program on Conflict Management and Negotiation at Bar Ilan University. His research focuses on the changing nature of power in international relations, as reflected in Middle East Diplomacy and Security, international law and the politics of human rights. He is the author of many publications. He is the co-author of Menachem Begin and the Israel-Egypt Peace Process: Between Ideology and Political Realism published by University of Indiana Press in 2019. b. Anne Herzberg is the Legal Advisor and UN Liaison to the Institute for NGO Research. She is a graduate of Oberlin College and Columbia University Law School, where she was named a James Kent Scholar. Prior to joining the Institute in 2006, she worked as a litigator at the law firms of Winston & Strawn and Shearman & Sterling in New York. Her pro bono work included projects for the International Criminal Court for Rwanda, and obtaining refugee status for a survivor of the conflict in the DRC. Her publications on international criminal law, IHL, and universal jurisdiction have appeared in many prominent academic journals and news outlets. C. Palestinian Media Watch 9. Palestinian Media Watch (“PMW”) is an Israeli research institute, founded in 1996, that is known internationally for its in-depth research of Palestinian society from a broad range 3 For instance, the Institute filed a brief on October 20, 2010 with the OTP analyzing the jurisdictional issues (https://www.icc-cpi.int/nr/rdonlyres/d3c77fa6-9dee-45b1-acc0- b41706bb41e5/282590/otp2010000035614ngomonitorsubmissiontootp201012.pdf.); attended the October 2010 NGO Roundtable hosted by the OTP; and contributed to the on-line ICC Legal Forum established by the OTP in partnership with UCLA Law School. https://iccforum.com/forum/permalink/7/905 4 “IHL 2.0: Is There a Role for Social Media in Monitoring and Enforcement,” 45 Israel Law Review 493 (2012) No. ICC-01/18 5/10 February 2020 ICC-01/18-26 14-02-2020 6/10 EK PT of perspectives. PMW’s research and findings have played a central role in identifying key Palestinian practices and narratives about the Israel-Palestinian conflict. 10. PMW's team of Arabic language researchers monitor, translate, and analyze the Palestinian Authority (PA) controlled media, schoolbooks, and other official publications in order to understand the messages the PA and other Palestinian leaders send to their people.